It was time for Werner (a.k.a. the Ginga Ninja) and I to team up again for a relatively unknown event in the "Bo-Karoo". The Lormar Endurance Farm Trail 3 day stage race.
With a relatively good website, some good sponsors and some exposure on Super Cycling last year it seemed like it would be a worth-while event to enter. With a relatively "affordable" (I say that with caution) price tag and a sold out event, we were eagerly anticipating what the event organisers and local community can produce.
The adventure started on Friday morning at 6am when we took the road to Fairview Farm (not to be confused with Fairview outside of Paarl!) around 65km from Richmond (not to be confused with Richmond in KZN!).
A quick stop at Matjiesfontein for Breakfast and singing a few songs with the local historian, barman, pianist and all round good oke (Johnny, who's mom was the "Grootbaas se hot chocolate" and who is now the "Grootbaas se cuppachino" and we were off again.
8 hours after leaving Somerset West we arrived at the race venue. The village was neatly laid out and had good visible signage.
Registration started an hour late due to some technical issues, and took quite a while to get the 250 riders registered. We queued for almost 90 minutes to get our boards and race packs and it seemed like people were a bit disorganised. We took the time to sample some of the craft beer on offer and was watching the cricket in the background.
With the last riders registering at 17:30, we were ready for the running of the horses and start of the first stage, a 23km nigh ride.
The wind was pumping (a theme throughout all 3 stages) and we started a bit too far back in the self seeded start, so we quickly realised that we would have to get through traffic to get some relatively open track.
Night riding in the Karoo is just special, even with the wind howling, fox holes appearing after irrigation bumps on the jeep track out of nowhere, and sand almost magically appears and disappears without warning.
Karoo lamb on the spit, garden saland, potatoes and bread with many beers made for a good supper and koeksusters and melktertjies for dessert was awesome.
The wind kept on howling through the night and had me worried about stage 2, as it was coming from the general direction of Nieu-Bethesda, our destination for stage 2.
Stage 2 started with a much lighter southerly wind and took us through the grazing camps of the wild horses that we saw running for our benefit the night before. The horses were in a playful mood and were galloping next to the batches of riders, and weaving their way ahead of the field. A magnificent sight... pure unrestricted motion with every tiny well developed muscle flexing and relaxing as they made their way ahead.
Next up a herd of Gemsbok crossed the trail ahead of us at such a speed that we were expecting a lion or 3 to be chasing them. Fortunately no lions appeared and we made our way encircling Kompasberg on our way to Nieu-Bethesda.
The bulk of the climbing was done by the second water point with not too much of the dreaded wind to speak of. We were looking forward to the fast rolling tracks from the second water point to the finish, but the wind made an appearance again. We were fortunate to get a good pace line going with another team and finished the stage strong in 3h16 minutes for the 62km route.
Upon arrival at the finish we were informed that the luggage truck had a flat tyre and was only expected later. Fortunately Werner had cash on him so we could get a cold beer and sort our bikes out in the meantime. Once the luggage arrived it was a mad scramble for the showers. There was no hot water and with only 2 showers for the ladies and around 8 showers for the men (open showers) it was a bit of a challenge to get everyone cleaned up. We were fortunate to only wait around 20 minutes for a shower, but some of the ladies had to wait over an hour.
Nieu-Bethesda is a gem of a little town and well worth the visit. The brewery in town is top notch, and was the venue for the 3pm brewery ride. We opted for a walk instead to the brewery and had a wonderful afternoon under the trees with some fellow cyclists.
Bad Peter Band was performing after 3pm and with beers flowing, a lovely spread of fresh artisan bread, cold cuts, cheese, preserves and pickles it was quite hard to leave for the race village.
Dinner was due to be served at 6pm, but it was clear that we were not going to eat before 8pm, so we opted for another stroll through the town to kill some time.
The Karan Beef steaks went down well and dessert were lemon tarts and date fingers.
Sleep was a bit hard to come by with a wedding reception that were partying until around 2am in town, so getting up for stage 3 was a bit of a struggle.
The stage started with a climb and a headwind, and 40km later we were still climbing and battling the same headwind.
Riders bunched up and battled the gusting wind throughout the day, at times Werner and I looked back at the train of riders following us hoping that some would share the pace making. A few riders came to the front only to break away after sitting on for almost and hour. Poor form chaps! They ended up missing a marker and got lost, finishing a fair bit after us ...KARMA...
We rode with a lady rider and managed to help her move up from 5th in the ladies to a podium. It felt good to have helped her along as we had many short chats and having company helped to make a boring and gruelling stage more bearable.
At the finish line the luggage truck was still missing in action, so we loaded our bikes, had our Kerrie Vetkoek lunch and waited around for the luggage to arrive.
We got a nice hot private shower in the suite that our lady riding companion and her husband booked before the event as part of the luxury upgrade and it felt good not to have to queue for a shower for once.
The long road home felt quite short with the knowledge that we met some cool people over the weekend and had some great memories to share.
My overall impression of the event was that there were not enough facilities for the number of riders. Queuing for registration, showers, toilets, food and drinks spoiled what could have been a much more smoothly run event. On Saturday afternoon some teams could not get tents, and extra tents had to be put up for them, also a bit of a slip.
Things like trucks breaking can happen, but having a few beers / cooldrinks available at the finish would have helped a lot to lighten the mood of tired and dirty riders waiting for their luggage so that they can clean up.
The routes on days 1 and 2 were pleasant and although there were no real single track on the routes, riding jeeptrack for long sections made things interesting and surprisingly tough. The route for day 3 felt long and tedious. I am sure that the wind played a role, but investing in building even a few short sections of single track could make a dull route a bit more interesting.
The positives were a good timing system, good communication via sms, for those of us who got reception at Fairview and Nieu-Bethesda and good food, all be it that it was not always ready on time.
While we met some amazing people and had a good time in general I will not be returning next year for the event. If facilities were sufficient and execution by the organisers were better I would have been much more tempted to return.
Some of the photos, courtesy of the Ginga Ninja.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNuG5osbHRI-45GlBaUPG4AHoGPG1azMUqvIv5DlM9Qudkns_HSd_CAxXaNTM0cZA?key=T2hyN0puTFRlbUcxSTlCZ0RiVC1EX1p4U3pjWVl3
Thanks for reading! Keep the rubber side on the dirt.
